From the Farm to the Harvest– Charles R. Lloyd
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I was raised on a farm near Enid, Oklahoma with my parents and two younger brothers. On the farm we primarily raised beef cattle, milk cows, poultry, and harvested hay and wheat. This setting provided a very rich and fulfilling youth. My mother is a strong religious person who attended a Christian church and made us kids attend church on a regular basis.
During my junior year in college, I came to the conclusion that I did not see any purpose for living. A student had climbed upon the press box of the football stadium and jumped to his death. I found out that he was enrolled in engineering and was on the Dean’s Honor roll. He had a girlfriend and was the only child of a wealthy family. What he had – money, grades and a girl – were the things I was in college to get and yet he had them and was not satisfied so why did I think these things would satisfy me.
I prayed to God that if He were real then I would like to know Him.
Two weeks later in the evening my roommate, Eddie, and I were in our dorm room studying. We heard a knock on the door, so I got up and opened the door. A big guy, Dave, who played on the college football team, was standing in the doorway said, “I want to talk to you about Jesus Christ.” He came into the room, sat on my bed and told my roommate and me to sit on each side of him. He used the Bible and drew a diagram which showed how man was separated from God because of sin and that Jesus Christ had died for our sins and that He was the only way to get to know God and have eternal life. He quoted Revelations 3:20, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come into him, and will dine with him, and he with Me." I knew who God was at an early age, mainly because of the strong influence of my mother, and had attended church most of my life. I believed that what Dave said was true. I knew I was a sinner and that the answer to my sin problem was the Lord Jesus Christ.
Shortly afterward, I was invited to a weekend Christian conference at a place called Devil’s Canyon in a mountainous area of Oklahoma. Saturday afternoon, at the conference, the speaker closed his message and instructed everyone to go out for an hour and not talk to anyone but read the Bible and pray. He said: “If you have never invited Christ into your life, do it now.” I went out and found a rock at the edge of a meadow and there invited Christ into my life as my personal Lord and Savior.
When I got back to my dorm at school, I found other guys on my floor who had also made decisions for Christ. We got together and decided that what a Christian should do is pray. We made a pact with each other that we would pray together every night in the corner dorm room starting at 10:30pm. After praying for several days, we noticed that some students were coming by the room, standing by the door in the hall and listening to us pray. One afternoon as I was leaving my dorm room and walking down the hall to go to class, a big hand reached out and grabbed my arm. It was Grant, one of the guys who lived on my floor. He asked me to come into his room and sit down as he drew up a chair for himself and me. He asked, “What are you doing in that room”? I replied, “We are praying”. He asked, “Who are you praying to”? I said, “God”. He asked, “How does a person get to know God”? All I knew to say was what I did so that’s what I told him. Grant decided immediately that was what he wanted to do so he prayed to receive Jesus Christ into his life. He also joined our prayer group. Dave who shared Christ with me in my dorm room started meeting with me and sharing how to live the Christian life and how to share the Gospel with other students in my dormitory.
Since then I have developed two life goals: to honor God with my life (Isa 43:7) and while in this body to be in His eyes an approved workman (II Timothy 2:15) and an intent doer of His word (Eccl.12:13). I have specific written objectives designed to complete these goals under the headings: Personal, Family, Ministry and Career.
I desire some day to hear the words, “well done, good and faithful servant….” (Matthew 25:21). Nothing else really matters.
My vision is to complete the work He has designed me to do in fulfilling His mission to seek and save the lost (Luke 19:10) and make disciples who will reproduce (Matthew 28:19, 20).
I have moved from the farm to being a harvester for Christ.
